Birds & Friends in the Wetlands (Shooting w/Snapa - FE100-400)

A few weekends ago, I had a fellow Dpreviewer meet up for my regular Saturday wetlands shoot at Green Cay Wetlands. Snapa came up, shooting his FE70-300mm, and I was using my FE100-400mm...it stayed dry but unfortunately was 1 day before the DST clocks rolled back an hour, so our afternoon meet was still in the mid-day light, and one of the two side-by-side parks was closed that day, so we had to stick to doing a couple rounds of Green Cay.

But there's always stuff to find in these places, and it's always nice to shoot with a fellow photog, talk about gear and discuss shooting tips and styles.

Here are some of the shots from that day, which Snapa will likely recognize (he took a few of the same shots and angles in his post last week), all posted at 1400 pixels on the long side if you click the originals. Some shots used the 1.4x TC which are mentioned in the descriptions:

A pair of blue-winged teals - one still having a nap as the other looks around. Interesting that the front bird was banded - I couldn't see the full number, but was able to find who banded him (a group out of Marlyland, in conjunction with Canada, tracking their migration and survival rates)

This guy's got a cool name - band-winged dragonlet!

A young turtle saying hello, as he lies on a bed of algae moss

This red-shouldered hawk was a lighting nightmare - massively backlit and about 120 feet away on a snag. But hawks are cool, so cranking up the EV and playing with the AEL lock until I could expose him worked enough to get an identifiable shot

A bunch of turtles still enjoying an old fallen palm tree from last month's hurricane - it provides a nice spot to climb up, dry off, and rest those feet!

Snapa was hoping to see a few reptiles, and we didn't have as many out in the open today - but this juvenile basilisk lizard was resting on top of a lilypad leaf in the water (1.4x TC)

A nice little palm warbler that popped out into the sun for a spell as we were passing by - rather than in the forest, he was out in the reeds of the wetlands (1.4x TC)

This great blue heron had strong top and backlight standing about 40 feet out - I decided to use the advantage of the 840mm equivalent reach for a closeup (1.4x TC)

One of those 'ooh, BIF!' moments that I just swung the camera around last second to try to catch this anhinga as it flew by low. Not the greatest, but the focus got to him with less than a second's planning and with the TC attached, so not bad (1.4x TC)

This American coot got spooked by something under the water, and jumped up to run away - I think a turtle nipped at his foot - don't think that only alligators are a danger for them - Florida softshell turtles and snappers will both grab a bird as a meal! (1.4x TC)

This was way off in the distance - we were walking out over an open lake and saw what looked like a big fish on a kebab going across the water's surface...as is usually the case when fish are floating in the air on sticks, it was an anhinga with his catch (1.4x TC)

He looked like he wanted to bring it to shore where he could eat it without fear of losing it in the water - but he was hundreds of feet from any land - so after a few bobs up in the air to get more leverage, he managed to thrust the fish up, catch it in his mouth, and swallow (1.4x TC)

ISO 6,400 needed for this sneaky little catbird, sitting very quietly deep in the undergrowth of the pine scrub - took a little threading of the focus through a lot of branches and leaves to pick him out, and all 840mm-equivalent reach (1.4x TC)

This little girl I've shared here in two previous threads - it's the female indigo bunting, rare sighting and first in many years...she was strategically standing JUST out of the beam of sunlight in the shadow - so to expose her, I had to ignore that glowing beam of light blowing out the branch and use ISO 5,000 (1.4x TC)

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